Meritocracy
by CurioOfTheHeart
Summary: A world ruled by power, only the strong survive while the weak die off. Utter hell to some, a perfect paradise to others. Written for Devil Survivor Secret Santa on Tumblr. Explores world of the Meritocracy end.


This was a Secret Santa fic writte for Tumblr user sadodere based off of this prompt: I'd prefer desu1, but if Santa really wants to do desu2 I'd be interested in post-ending for any of the vanilla game's endings apart from restorer. more focused on the setting than the cast, preferably.

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 **Meritocracy**

A world ruled by power, only the strong survive while the weak die off. Utter hell to some, a perfect paradise to others. But still, even in a power-based meritocracy like this, leeches on society exist.

"Come on kids, didn't your parents teach ya to share?" a shady man begged of two children. In any other world, the two children might share the food they had with the skinny man, but here they rejected such notions.

"Why?" The older of the two-a rough looking girl of about fourteen-asked of the man. "What will you do for us?"

"I-I don't have anything to offer, but please, help me. I'm starving and so close to death, I need food. Please!" The man begged as he fell on his knees.

"So just die already. We found this food fair and square," the younger of the two-a boy who looked about twelve-replied sternly. "Unless you want to fight for it."

"Fine," the man pulled out a worn cell phone. "But I'll warn you kids first, I have the demon summoning app. And if you don't hand over the food, I'll use it."

"Ooh, scary," the girl replied sarcastically, pulling out a phone of her own. "I think my demons are stronger than yours. Now get your ass out of here if you don't want to be killed."

"S-sorry." The man turned to run off.

"Nevermind, you've annoyed me enough to even pull out my phone. Bufudyne."

With a press of a button on her phone, the girl's magic encased the man in ice.

"Why'd you do that, sis?" The boy asked her.

"Because, that man was too pathetic. Letting him live would be a blight to society," she replied.

"No, why freeze him? You probably could've killed him some other way, and we could've taken whatever he has on him."

"Oh yeah, that is a good idea." The girl laughed and ruffled her brother's hair. "You'll do well in this world, kiddo."

The boy laughed too and they went back to eating, as well as waiting for the man to thaw out so they could see if there was anything salvageable on his corpse.

In another city in another country in a different part of the world, the rules of the meritocracy held the same.

Two gangs-the Cerberus gang and the Succubi-were in the middle of a turf war. Gangs often formed around the powerful in this world, with the weakest members being seen as nothing more than fodder for the inevitable turf wars that break out.

The fighting, both human and demon, was causing heavy damage in the surrounding areas, a common result of gang fighting.

"Will you idiots stop!" In the middle of the fighting, the voice of an old woman rang out. It took power to even reach old age, but the young idiots in the gangs ignored this and decided to antagonizing the frail woman.

"Who the hell are you?" The leader of the Cerberus gang-a blond punk in his early twenties fighting alongside a Cerberus-yelled at her. "Do you want to get fuckin' killed? 'Cause I won't hesitate to off ya if you insult me again.."

The old woman let out a sigh and pulled out a phone. "Bunch of idiots. You are messing up my home. So I will ask once. Stop fighting and leave now."

The gang members looked at her in shock before breaking out in laughter. The leaders of the two gangs stopped their fighting and approached her.

"Oh, you're only gonna ask once?" The woman who headed the Succubi said.

"What will you do if we don't? Throw hard candy at us?" The Cerberus leader added.

"Is that a refusal?" The woman calmly asked as she opened her demon summoning app.

"Of course, you old bat! I'm not gonna give up this area just because some weakling asked me to."

"Tsk, too bad. Come out, Nyarlathotep and Vasuki. Megidolaon." Her demons appeared in a second and started their barrage of almighty blasts. When they cleared, the only person left alive in the area was the old woman.

"Too bad, that damaged the area too. At least those punks are out of the way." She calmly turned around and walked back in.

The widespread use of the demon summoning app helping ensure that those weak in body but strong in brains had a chance to stand their own in this world.

Elsewhere, in the depths of the Siberian Tundra, a bundled up figure strode on through the snow. Occasionally the stopped and checked their phone, maybe shifting their course some when they did. Finally, they came across their target: a slave labor camp. A cartel kidnapped people and brought them here to be worked until they died.

According to the rules of the world, this was fine as they proved themselves stronger than those they kidnapped. But as far as the wanderer was concerned, making others do your work was pathetic and a show of weakness disguised as strength.

Silently, they pulled out a phone and summoned their demons-the five multicolored frosts known as the Frost Five. The wanderer disappeared into the snow as their demons started a frontal assault on the camp.

Of course a panic went up and the cartel members tried to put up a fight. But the Frost Five were invulnerable to all but Almighty powers which the rank and file at the camp lacked. They may be heroes, but the Frost Five had no mercy for those who opposed them. Empathy for those who try to fight when they can't may be heroic in this world, but mercy for enemies is asking for death.

As the Frost Five took on the guards at the gate, their summoner made their way in by climbing over a wall. Three bullets from a gun took down the guard still remaining guarding the slaves, and a zandyne destroyed the door to the building they were being held in.

"Come on," the hero called in.

Thin, starved, overworked, and starting to freeze, the captives just stared at their savior. While the hero already hated slavery, they were disgusted to see most of the captives were children, and those who weren't were just teens.

Hearing a yell, the hero turned and put a bullet between the eyes of a guard before turning back to the children. "Mediarahan." Magic healed the slaves' wounds and they started cautiously moving towards the door.

Five minutes later, all the guards were dead and the children were out of the compound.

"Th-thank you," one of the children spoke up.

"No problem, just make sure you grow up strong," the wanderer replied. "For now, you'll need a guide back to civilization. Melon Frost, go with them."

"Yes, summoner!" The green snowman said with a salute. He walked over to the children. "Come on kids!"

As Melon Frost started leading the kids, the wanderer and the other four Frosts walked off to find others in need.

Even in a world like this, empathy wasn't totally absent. The young, the frail or sick who tried to help regardless, those who showed potential but hadn't had a chance to live up to it. So even in a dog-eat-dog world like this one, heroes rose. They weren't always the nicest people and even they can be callous at times, but a lot better than many others.


End file.
